How do you write like you're running out of time?
by AndreaV.E
Summary: Alexander keeps leaving his own original works on the shelfs of the library and John is a librarian who reads his stories and is starting to form a crush on Alexander. I suck at summaries. Based of off a prompt. Lams


Based of off this prompt that I unfortunately can't find anymore: "I'm a librarian and you keep leaving your original works on the shelf and these stories are great but you should really publish these before sticking them in the library."

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There he was again. Every week or so the dark haired beauty came to the library to borrow a couple of books. Every so often he would leave one of his own original works on the shelves. The first time John realized someone was putting their own books on the shelves was when a middle-aged woman came to him complaining about not being able to scan a book. After looking through the library's archives he found that the library didn't own that book nor anything from the writer, Alexander Hamilton. After trying to explain the situation to the woman and apologizing repeatedly, John was finally able to take a break and left the book on his desk, deciding to take care of it later. After his break Lafayette needed his help and Hercules stopped by, distracting John for the rest of the afternoon. John had shift until eleven p.m. that day, Lafayette was clocked out around six o'clock and John was stuck with Samuel Seabury for the rest of the night. To say John and Samuel didn't get along was an understatement and in order to keep everything civil they tried to avoid each other as much as possible. That being said, his shift was very boring, not many people went to the library at that time and John had no one to talk to. As John looked around for something to do he saw the book lying there, having nothing else to do, John picked up the book and started reading, soon fully captivated by this Alexander Hamilton's writing.

The second time, John saw Hamilton put a book on the fantasy shelf. Instead of confronting him, John decided to wait until Hamilton, who by the way looked like he just stepped out of some fashion magazine, with his hair done up in a bun and wearing a very fitting suit, left the library. When he did John grabbed the new book and again he found himself being drawn in by Alexander's writing.

From that day on, John kept an eye out for Alexander, and over time John started to notice little things about Him, like the way he somehow always looked tired, like he never got a full night of sleep, though, then again, with how many book he read and the fact that he must spent a lot of time writing as well, it really shouldn't be that surprising. John noticed how Alexander could apparently pull off just about anything. Some days he would wear a hoodie and sweatpants and look adorable, on others he would wear a suit and look breathtakingly hot, sometimes he would just wear a button up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, John suspected that Alexander did that just to annoy John with his beauty. He noticed how some days Alexander looked like he was on a mission, looking at all kinds of nonfiction books and usually going home with a very large pile of books, books that he would usually return only a few days later. On other days Alexander would take his time, looking through some nonfiction books, though on those days he would mostly look at fiction. He'd look through everything, from thrillers to romance stories to fantasy books, on those days he would go home with about two or three books and when he'd return them it would be quite obvious that he didn't sleep much. He looked happier on those days. John sometimes saw how Alexander started to shine when he had found a good book and expected Alexander to be the kind of person who could go on and on about a good book.

John also kept reading the books Alexander left behind, he wrote all kinds of books, all belonging in different categories and all were amazing. He even wrote one book about working as a journalist, it was very interesting what with Alexander obviously having poured all of his anger towards his work and his coworkers, mostly a Jefferson. He had wrote about how annoying it was that Burr would never let his own opinion show, making all of his articles, in Alexander's opinion, very boring. About how much of an asshole Jefferson is, always thinking he's better than everyone, boasting about how great he is. Long story short, John figured that Alexander a journalist was and that he wasn't not too fond of his job. This lead to John looking him up online and finding out that Alexander had a way of making the most boring stories sound interesting.

Over time, John had formed quite a big crush on this Alexander. It kind of scared him actually, having grown up in an extremely homophobic environment. John had come out to his father six years ago when he was eighteen years old and had saved enough money to get himself a small apartment when his father had disowned him and kicked him out of the house. John had expected this to happen and had planned everything, this didn't mean it didn't hurt though, somewhere he had hoped his father wouldn't react like he had just told him he had killed a man, oh well, you can't have everything. Now he lived in a small apartment in New York, he worked at the library, he liked working at the library, he could read as many books as he wanted and it paid decently. He had a couple of friends here, he was finally comfortable with who he was and everything was pretty great, still, crushes scared him, dating scared him. After his father showed such blatant disgust towards what was such a big part of him, John became very scared of even the possibility of someone he liked doing the same.

Today though, John was going to talk to Alexander, he gathered all of his confidence and walked up to Alexander. "Uhm, hi." John said, awkwardly waving is hand in a manner that reminded him of 'hi, Zuko here'. "Uhm, so, I am a librarian here and I noticed you keep leaving your own original works on the shelves and, uhh, well, I mean these are really good, but you should really publish them before sticking them in the library…" he trailed of, well that went better than he had expected honestly.

"Oh, uh, yeah thanks. Do you really think they're good though?" Alexander asked, blushing a bright red. He couldn't help it, the boy, John Laurens, his name tag said, had caught him of guard. Plus, he wasn't really used to being complemented, and especially not by someone this cute. Sure, Washington sometimes complemented him, but that was it. Everyone else just thought he was annoying and surely this John would too once he got to know him. He really hoped not though, he didn't have any friends, well besides Burr, but Burr wasn't really a friend. Plus this guy was really cute, with his bushy hair and what seem like millions of freckles and his adorable smile and the slight blush on his cheeks.

"Well yeah, of course! Your writing style is really unique!" John exclaimed, immediately noticing how enthusiastically he had said it and feeling himself reddening.

"Well thank you, John Laurens." Alexander said, pointedly looking at John's name tag to indicate that he knew his name because of his name tag and that he wasn't some creepy stalker. "My name is Alexander Hamilton by the way, but you can call me Alex, everyone calls me Alex. Well, except for Jefferson that is, but he isn't allowed to. Oh, and Burr only calls me Alexander... Okay, well, only Washington calls me Alex. But still, you can call me Alex." Alex said, rambling a bit, having found his voice again. Alexander held a hand out for John to shake, already excited at the prospect of possibly making a new friend, maybe even more.

"John, pleasure to meet you." John replied, shaking Alexander's hand.

"So, John, what is a pretty boy like you doing here?" Alexander asked, smirking. He had decided to try to get John to agree to go on at least one date with him, that is, if he is even attracted to guys, before he realizes that someone as gorgeous as John shouldn't settle down for someone like him. A loser without friends, with a stupid journalist job that pays just good enough for him to live of off. Someone who spends all of his time outside from work locked up in his room, reading every book the library has to offer and writing books that he still doesn't believe are as good as John seems to think they are.

"Uhm, I uhh, I work here?" John stammered, accidentally kind of phrasing it as a question. Honestly though, what did he expect, what with Alexander flirting with him so casually. Like honestly, how did he even do that. I mean, John had flirted before, he had dated before, but somehow he couldn't even try to talk to Alexander without turning into a blushing and stuttering mess.

Alexander chuckled. "I meant, why are you working at a library instead of doing a photo shoot for the cover of people's magazine as sexiest man alive?" Honestly, why was this guy wasting his time on Alexander, why had he not walked away yet?

"Oh, right uhm, I don't- do you- I- sexiest man alive? I don't think-" John stammered, not being able to find the words to respond, his blush darkening by the second.

"John? There you are, I need your help. Could you come over here for a second?" A tall man with a heavy French accent called.

"Oh, uhm, yeah sure Laf, I'll be right there!" John replied before turning back to Alexander. "Okay, so I gotta go, but, uhm, do you- do you like wanna go on a date sometime? I mean if you don't that's fine of course."

"Uhh, yeah sure" Alexander replied, a bit taken aback.

"Great, uhm okay, wait here for a sec." With that John ran of somewhere and came back a few seconds later with a piece of paper, pushing the paper in Alexander's hand, he called a quick "call me!" Before running of to go help his friend.

Alexander looked down to the piece of paper in his hand. On it was a phone number, 'John' written in neat but hurried handwriting and a little heart drawn next to it. Alexander left the library that day with a big smile on his face and something to look forward to, feeling happier than he had in weeks.

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Whoo, look at that I actually wrote something again... I'm going to try to update this regularly, but I can't really promise anything. I also have absolutely no idea where I want to go with this story...

thank you you for reading and tips and constructive criticism are always appreciated.


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